Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/77

Rh occurs, in the British Museum. He has dated this book 1493; but his insertion of the regnal year of Richard III. enables us to correct this date by the omission of an x. Caxton was dead before 1493. In Mr. Botfield's Cathedral Libraries the error is made worse; for he says the date "is 1483 for 1493."

After the invention of printing and its introduction into England the third event in point of interest to most of us is the printing of the Bible. By the kindness of Her Majesty and of Sir William Tite, the Loan Collection contained two copies of Coverdale's Bible of 1535, the first whole Bible in English. It was probably printed at Zurich, and has frequently been attributed to the press of the well-known Froschover. It is a curious fact that no perfect copy of the book is known to exist, all being deficient in some point or other. The most perfect is that belonging to the Earl of Jersey; it only wants part of the title. Here again we meet with a misprint similar to those we pointed out above. This edition is easily recognised by a leaf which, being in the centre of the volume, generally remains even in very dilapidated copies, and which is numbered lxxxi, instead of lxxxiii.

There were also in the Loan Collection a copy of Tyndale's "Pentateuch" (1530), printed abroad; his New Testament, the second edition, 1534, and a little volume to which I am desirous of calling attention, as it is not mentioned by any of the authorities whom I have consulted on the subject, Lowndes, Cotton, Lea Wilson, Johnson, or Home. This was the "Testament of Moyses," 16mo, no date, but undoubtedly printed by Robert Redman, in or about 1532. It belongs to Mr. Addington, and derives double interest from its being all but unique, and from its being the only edition of any part of the Wycliffite translation of the Bible which was printed for the use of the people. This little volume was accompanied by three others from the same collection, and of equal rarity. They are all excerpts from the works of Wycliffe, and cost their present possessor £100 each, at the sale of the library of Mr. Dix of Bristol. I may here mention as an illustration of the value of the Loan Collection that thirteen books in all were lent by the possessor of these little Redmans, and that their value was upwards of £1000.